11-29-1994 Women of Achievement and Herstory B. 11-29-1832, Louisa May Alcott, noted writer whose main fame today is for her book Little Women, wrote more than 270 works. As a "good daughter," she supported her parents and several of her siblings. Raised impoverished because her father, a noted educator and philosopher, failed to provide sufficient income, she initially worked in a number of menial positions such as sewing before taking up writing in her spare time. Unmarried, she left home early and preferred to live alone. Although many HIStorians claim she was very devoted to her father, her correspondence clearly shows her disgust at his refusal to support his family. She wrote her father, "I am very well and very happy. Things go smoothly, and I think I shall come out right and prove that although an Alcott I can support myself." She was a noted suffrage, temperance, and abolitionist activist. Her early works were signed A.M. Barnard and were adventure stories. During Louisa May's childhood her family was near starvation many times and friends and neighbors took them food and clothing. In 1848 her mother, Abba Alcott at age 49, was hired by a group of philanthropic Boston women to be their city missionary to distribute food and clothing to the poor and needy. Her salary provided almost the only income for her four children and her philosopher father Branson who did a lot of thinking but little work. He is included in just about every tabulation of notable American men although as a family man, husband, and father he was a total disgrace. Branson wrote in his voluminous correspondence, "What with my wife's and (daughter) Anna's earnings, my own tithe and charities from a few friends, we survive as a family, and fall but little into debt." Louisa May nursed at the Union hospital in Georgetown, the inspiration for Hospital Sketches, and it was in 1868 that she produced - against her artistic will - Little Women. Fortunately she kept the copyright and she was able to pay all the family bills and enjoy a little bit of life from the grinding poverty of her childhood and young womanhood. She traveled to Europe and was much admired. Bad health, however, plagued her her entire life (probably caused from her impoverished childhood and scanty diet) and was known to overwork in attempts to earn enough money to support her family. In addition to writing prodigiously to support her family, she devoted many years to caring for her invalid mother, then her father, a triple chore that exhausted "the good daughter" and she died shortly. B. 11-29-1947, Petra Karim Kelly, helped found West German's Green Party, the environmental protection advocates. Quote du jour -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "Dear Mother, "Into your Christmas stocking, I put my 'first born' knowing that you will accept it with all its faults (for Grandmothers are always kind) and look upon it merely as an earnest of what I may yet do; for with so much to cheer me on, I hope to pass in time from fairies and fable to men and realities." -- Louisa May Alcott to her mother on the publication of her first book for which she received $32 which she gave her mother. >>>> (C) 1994 Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR 71902, irenestuber@delphi.com. Distribute verbatim copies freely with copyright notice for non-profit use.